MW makes strides in family planning
Malawi is among African countries that have made notable strides in family planning, giving more women ability to plan and space their pregnancies, the Gates Institute has said.
In a press statement announcing a family planning conference to be held in Ethiopia in November this year, the Gates Institute deputy director Jose “Oying” Rimon notes that new political and financial commitments have strengthened global family planning in countries including Malawi, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
“But there is still much work to be done,” Rimon is quoted in the statement signed by Global Health Strategies.
According to the 2010 Malawi Demographic Health Survey (DHS), 41 percent of women in Malawi have an unmet need for contraception, keeping them from planning the number of children they want to have and when.
Unmet need is the number of women who want to access family planning but cannot do so due to various reasons, including poor access. If the unmet need were fulfilled, UNFPA estimates that it could prevent 700 maternal deaths and 20 000 infant deaths every year.
Health experts observe that low use of family planning methods results in high risk and unsafe pregnancies which ultimately impact on socio-economic development.
At a 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, Vice-President Khumbo Kachali made a commitment to set aside a specific budget line for family planning, and to raise the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) from 42percent to 60 percent by 2020.
Family Planning Association of Malawi (Fpam) executive director Mathias Chatuluka said in an interview last week that Malawi is moving in the right direction.
“We are working on enhancing availability of family planning methods and also the availability of personnel in service providing outlets and so far we are doing quite well.
“We are also mobilising communities and other key stakeholders to understand the importance of family planning and embrace it as a strategy for economic development,” he said.
The conference, which will be held in Addis Ababa from November 12 to 15, calls together experts, advocates and leaders and creates a platform for participating countries to share strategies for success and build momentum to achieve contraceptive access.
